Thursday, October 11, 2012

It's Kind Of Like Training Wheels For Tentacles!

I've never actually played in a Call of Cthulhu game but I'm always on the look out for podcasts about it. Perhaps that doesn't make too much sense but we are talking about Cthulhu here. While trolling for some new podcasts to listen to I happened upon this esteemed learning institute and decided to give it a listen. Everyone sit down and prepare to enroll in...

Focus: Call of Cthulhu rules discussion with some AP sprinkled in there as well

Audio
Quality: Four mad cultists out of five

Content
Quality: Four raving lunatics out of five for fresh faced investigators, three for the grizzled veterans

Average
Length: roughly an hour and a half though it does very quite a bit

Release
Schedule: weekly to biweekly depending on the stars

Unlike most of the other podcasts I've listened to, Miskatonic University Podcast has taken a different approach by focusing on breaking down and explaining the rules of the game instead of just general game discussion. From character creation to combat to magic and beyond, this podcast has touched on all of them. In addition they also have some actual play recordings which give you a view of the mechanics in action though I must admit that there are more entertaining listens out there. This makes the MU Podcast a great resource for new players but I think it might limit its appeal to more experienced keepers. They do still have other segments that might interest veterans but a majority of the recording so far have been taken up by the rules discussion itself.

One of the downsides that I see to this format is that Chaosium is playtesting the 7th edition of the rules which sounds like it will have some of the first major changes to the rules in 6 editions. This makes me wonder if the MU Podcast will repeat this process when the game releases in 2013. Then again the 7th edition is probably a year away so there is plenty of time before they have to cross that hurdle. Then there is the fact that the book only contains so much information which makes me wonder what they will focus on in the future but I'm sure these guys have something up their sleeves.

Overall, if you are interested in learning more about the world created by Lovecraft and his peers I think that the Miskatonic University Podcast is worth giving a listen and even if you're already familiar with it you never know what else you might learn. Until next time...